''Turbo tursicus'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails.

Description

The shell grows to a length of 20 mm. The imperforated shell is somewhat pyramidally ovate. The sutures of the spire are excavated. The

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s are spirally squamately ridged, slanting around the upper part, sharply angled, erectly squamate at the angle. The aperture is small. This species is well characterized by its style of painting. It is whitish with broad scarlet rays, particularly distinct on the sloping upper surfaces of the whorls. These are sometimes edged with black posteriorly, and the suture is more or less stained with that color. The lower part of the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

is for the most part scarlet with a few narrow white streaks (sometimes black-spotted) radiating from the umbilical region. The operculum is white, thick, convex, and granose externally.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Indian Ocean off

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

and the Seychelles; off the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

, Thailand and the Philippines.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7853890 tursicus Gastropods described in 1843